A day with the Snow Queen, Gerda and Kai

Once again, I had the great fortune of organizing CPMS' craft room, and once again, my wonderful volunteers and I had hoards of artistic, craft-happy kids and parents come through before and after CPMS's two matinees.

This year, CPMS put on The Snow Queen as part of their children's series, so a craft that reflected the Hans Christian Andersen tale was in order.

I settled on articulated paper puppets as the craft which, for a number of reasons, was a good choice. Firstly, kids only have between 15 minutes and an hour to complete their craft. Secondly, paper puppets aren't terribly messy. Thirdly, kids love puppets.

And finally, the supply list is mercifully short...

pencil crayons or crayons (or both)

scissors

paper fasteners (found some super tiny ones in the scrapbooking aisle at Michael's)

popsicle sticks

I designed three puppets, outlined them in black felt maker, and had copies made at Staples on 100 lb card stock. Don't try to copy them yourself-- you'll go crazy.

I've also designed blank, morph-like looking puppets so that kids can decide for themselves what they want their character to be. I saw a hockey player, a fairy, a gryphon and a caricature of Barack Obama.

But, back to the Snow Queen.

Here's what she looked like before colouring, cutting and attaching her body parts....

and here's what she looked like afterwards. See how she bends at the waist thanks to that little fastener...

Gerda and Kai were slightly smaller than the Snow Queen (she's a more imposing character)...

And here's a sample of Gerda with dark hair done by one of my crafty kids... she looks great either way. Only her artist knows for sure what colour her hair should be.